May 12, 2016, White Pass

I arrived at 9am and there was a nice wind that made skinning comfortable. There were at least 3 climbing options that I could see. I spoke to one of the workers and climbing up Main Street would have some carries over dirt on your way to Basin quad. I opted out of that, leaving two other options..  Option #2 - climbing Poma Face which requires a 100' climb on dirt/grass to skinning terrain.  Or option #3 - skinning up Lower Roller. I like option #2; I carry some small binocular to check it €œout€, and it was a 500' skin to the cat track.  I used my crampons because the slope had some frozen segments. Then you get on the Cascade Cat Track  for 300 vertical. Then you get on the Cascade trail which is wide, and a large part of the trail has been groomed from the closing days. The top is at 6000'. I looked at Hogback Mountain which has great terrain. The Basin quad and the Couloir Express lifts also have great coverage. No one was around and it was another day of €œgroomed terrain€ with plenty of space to enjoy it. The top of my 500' climbing trail was narrow, but the snow was soft and it was fun to make tight turns down to the base lodge.  The drive back was over Cayuse Pass, and I was home in 2.5 hours.